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- Thailand By Numbers
- Rolling To A Stop
- Sidecars And Side Roads
- Day Of Food – Thailand
- 23,000 Kilometre Photo
- Cambodia By Numbers
- The Hot South
- Day Of Food – Cambodia
- Cycling Flat Out
- Quiet Times At Angkor Wat
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Early Riding Ritual
Getting up early to start cycling has become a regular part of our daily routine since the south of China – with afternoon temperatures in the high 20s cycling becomes a sweaty exhausting chore. Its a routine that seems harsh when an alarm calls at 5am but that brings rewards when you cycle under the welcome cool of early morning mist watching from the saddle as empty roads slowly fill with life. Having the bulk of your cycling over and done with by early afternoon isn’t too bad either. – Posted by Justin
20,000 Kilometre Photo
The 20,000 kilometre photo was taken approximately 5km outside Luang Prabang, Laos on 15th November 2011. That day we had covered a fairly quick 110km alongside the Nam Ou river before it merged with the Mekong. In the evening when we were settled in our comfortable guest house we raised a few toasts to the distance cycled so far and promised ourselves celebratory cakes the next day. – Posted by Justin
Vietnam By Numbers
Only having five cycling days in Vietnam we had just a brief glimpse of what the country has to offer. Finding ourselves in Kunming, China with time to spare we found we could cycle a tiny corner of Vietnam to the Tay Trang border crossing to Laos, also increasing our country count to 15. Spending as much time in the tourist friendly town of Sa Pa as tiny rural villages meant we had little chance to learn much Vietnamese but we did take every opportunity to sample the new types of food on offer. Friendly children shouting hello and cute free roaming animals helped with the steep hill climbs as did the occasional thunder storm that drenched us in minutes. – Posted by Justin
China By Numbers
We had only a basic idea of what we would find in China, with a change in diet after our cycling in Mongolia one of our highest priorities. After spending almost three months cycle touring in China we barely scraped the surface of the incredibly diverse and complicated country. We experienced some of the worst roads and most challenging terrain of our journey so far, but we also experienced and learnt about a number of distinct cultures. We experienced firsthand the environmental challenges China faces while cycling on traffic and smog choked roads but also bathed in the unspoilt beauty of national forest parks and the mountain landscapes of the Tibetan plateau. – Posted by Justin
Harvest And Hotel Time
Hotels in China are some of the cheapest and most widely available of any country we have visited on this trip. This combined with shorter daylight hours as we head southwards and the densely populated countryside, has seen us spending an increasing number of nights indoors. In fact our route from Tiger Leaping Gorge to Kunming saw us only camp out for a single night in ten days on the road. – Posted by Justin
Day Of Food – China
When we arrived in China we were looking forward to a big change from our Mongolian diet and we weren’t disappointed. Most menus offer a bewildering array of options all of which we are unable to appreciate not being able to read more than a few basic Chinese characters. Our ordering tactics include pointing at dishes that other diners are eating, wandering into the kitchen and selecting from the food on display or using our trusty point and show phrasebook. The cooker is remaining idle as we eat mainly at roadside cafes for prices cheaper than we can buy raw ingredients. – Posted by Justin
18,000 Kilometre Photo
The 18,000 kilometre photo was taken near to Baishuitai, China on 10th October 2011. We were cycling with Kate and Jason who were our art directors and supporters for this photo. Having climbed a lot of passes in bad weather on poor road surfaces in the last 1000 kilometres, we were glad that for this photo the sun was shining, we were at the top of a hill and there was smooth asphalt as far as the eye could see. – Posted by Justin
Chasing Autumn Colours
Heading south from Litang with our sights set on Shangrila, the trials of cycling through the mud drenched road works between Kangding and Litang seem like a distant memory. The sun is shining, the asphalt is not only present but delightfully smooth and long gentle descents easily outweigh the short uphill stretches. Even the presence of a drawing pin in my front tyre noticed by a concerned monk during our first morning noodle stop couldn’t dampen our spirits. – Posted by Justin
Raising My Spirits
We seem to be the first traffic on the early morning road and enjoy the swishing of the smooth slightly damp asphalt under our tyres. The green fields filled with quietly grazing shaggy yaks rise towards craggy exposed rock and a sky just brightening as the sun climbs skywards. There doesn’t seem to be much that could improve our cycling day other than a big bowl of fresh steaming noodles and that lies just a few kilometres further down the road. Over the coming days asphalt will become but a distant memory while the swishing of tyres will be replaced by muddy squelching. For now though everything is right with our cycling world. – Posted by Justin
17,000 Kilometre Photo
The 17,000 kilometre photo was taken on the outskirts of Ya’an, China on 16th September 2011. We had just turned off the G108 road that we followed almost the whole way through China and onto the G318 that would lead us westwards. You can’t tell from the photo but the traffic was busy as usual although we had ducked onto a quiet footpath for a few hundred metres. – Posted by Justin